Arab rock-throwers continue to terrorize highways after they caused the deaths of Asher Palmer and his baby son Yonaton last Friday. Residents are beginning patrols Tuesday after a rabbi miraculously escaped with his life in an attack that smashed his window Monday evening, covering him with glass.
Under the banner “Stones Kill – Don’t be the Next Victim,” the Women in Green announced they will patrol the highway where Rabbi Yaron Durani’s vehicle was attacked as he drove from Gush Etzion, south of Jerusalem, to his community of Nokdim, opposite Tekoa in eastern Gush Etzion.
Nearly 20 similar attacks have been carried out recently by Arab terrorists, according to police, who initially claimed that Friday’s fatal car crash was a result of reckless driving. The IDF also said no terror was involved.
After eyewitness reports published by Arutz Sheva of a bloodstained rock inside found inside the vehicle, security officials backtracked and confirmed that Palmer lost control of his car after the rock smashed his windshield, and possibly scored a direct hit on his face. He and his baby son were buried on Sunday.
Last week, a young couple with small children barely escaped injury after an Arab in a taxicab that passed by their car threw a large rock, estimated to weigh about four pounds. It landed inches in front of the car, the intended victim told Arutz Sheva.
A security officer pointed out that the impact of the rock is approximately 100 miles an hour after taking into account the speed of the Jewish and Arab vehicles headed in opposite directions.
The attack was carried out on Highway 60, which connects Jerusalem with Gush Etzion, Hevron-Kiryat Arba and the southern Hevron Hills.
Rock-throwing attacks have terrorized drivers for more than 25 years since the first Intifada broke out in the last 1980s. "Drive-by” terror previously has been used by terrorists to carry out shooting attacks. Using the tactic for rock throwing, intended to result in a direct hit or to cause the driver to lose control and crash, makes it difficult for IDF patrols to catch the perpetrators.
The Women in Green campaign is taking action to stop “rock terror" and has posted signs along the highway, in Arabic and Hebrew, that “on the road, we are equal.”
Today (Tuesday), they intend to have a car convoy patrol the Efrat-Nokdim road with organized departure from Efrat's southern gate at 5 p.m., from Tekoa's main road at 5:15 p.m. and from the Nokdim gate at 5:20 p.m..
The nationalist group noted that leftists can say, “We told you so,” meaning that terror would result if Jews do not surrender the land where they live. However, “if we defend our land and so not agree to return to the ‘stone age,’ we can put an end to this [rock terror] before the next funeral,” Women in Green stated.
The organization demanded that the government act to take full sovereignty over the roads and to severely punish terrorists.
